Of course I am saddened by Bernie’s speech, and expect that, barring a miracle like the FBI connecting the dots between Seth Rich’s murder and John Ashe’s murder, Hillary Clinton will be the Democratic nominee.

That sucks. It means the oil companies will be able to frack the fuck out of anywhere on the planet they please. It means corporations becoming even more entrenched with government than they are. It could verywell mean war.

But one other thing I’m really upset about is the reaction of so many Sanderistas. Calling Bernie a sellout. And a traitor. That is uncalled for. He is not stabbing us in the back. He’s a pragmatic politician. I think he’s playing his best hand to get what he thinks we can get, and it’s really not good enough, but that is not Bernie’s fault.

A few things to remember.

There will still be 1900 Sanders delegates in the first round. Superdelegates are still going to have to deal with their consciences but, seeing as how so many of them have none, that’s not likely to hurt her either, even if she’s been flat out indicted on one of the major charges pending.

The important thing is what happens to the Bernie Sanders movement, this massive wave of political energy which has built up and now has nowhere to go. We should focus on getting candidates onto the ballot – Berniecrats – in all districts, state and federal, in 2018. We should have some discussions about what our main goals are.

As to November, our options are as follows: Vote for Jill Stein, or write in Bernie Sanders. Whichever way that goes, we probably should have an open and honest discussion about it and get everybody on the same page.

Some people I know will be voting for Hillary. I’m not going to cut them out of my life, although I don’t think much of their decision. Some people I know will be voting for Trump.

But I’m not talking about them. For progressives, the options are limited to the first two. Unless Bernie actually does get the nomination. Miracles have been known to happen.

Like this:

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2 responses to “My Reaction to Bernie’s Speech”

Hi Willie. I completely agree that you should be focusing on getting down-ballot progressives voted in. That will be an excellent positive use of the political energy.
I would note: there are no pending major (or minor) charges against Hillary, except wishful thinking on some people’s parts.
For the Bernie or Busters in solid red or blue states, I don’t see that it matters if a small percentage of people vote for Jill Stein or try to write someone in (not every state’s ballot allows write-ins for President). But for those Bernistas in swing states, voting for anyone but Hillary would be a terrible decision. A few percentage points to Jill Stein doesn’t send a message that next time we should go more left. It sends the message that Donald Trump won. And when a super-right-wing racist nutbag wins, the politics shift rightward to draw from his camp – not leftward with the idea that the electorate really wanted someone radically left, so they elected someone radically right.
Not to mention all the terrible things that will happen while we wait the 4-8 years to replace Trump – people losing health care, women losing the right to choose, no movement at all on gun legislation, the 1st amendment run through the ringer, prayer and bible issues being put into law, LGBT rights being trampled. Perhaps you think all that’s just the price we have to pay. But for me, I think those are pretty bleak outcomes for the benefit of being able to say your vote was made in could conscience.

Nonetheless, you have to know: a whole hell of a lot of people will not vote for Hillary under any circumstances. We really do hate her that much. She did not win the nomination fairly (she has not won it yet, either), and I am convinced (although I obviously cannot prove) that she had John Ashe and Seth Rich murdered. Even Trump hasn’t sunk to that level, to the best of my knowledge.